By Ananya Parambath

Almost everyone has played, or at least heard about, the online game ‘Among Us’. On the off chance that you have been living under a rock for the past 4 months, here is a quick summary of the game. In the multiplayer game there can be up to three out of ten impostors, and the rest all are crewmates. The crewmates are expected to carry out a series of space-themed tasks in order to win the game, while the impostors’ goal is to kill all crewmates on board the “spaceship”. Emergency meetings can be called or dead bodies of crewmates can be reported at any point in time, once this has been done, players are to chat and vote out only one person who they suspect might be the impostor. Despite this being merely an online game, after a casual observation, we have come to acknowledge that it in fact is linked to a phenomenon in real life known as the ‘impostor syndrome’ or the ‘fraud syndrome’.  

The ‘impostor syndrome’ is essentially a psychological pattern, in which individuals tend to have little faith in their talents and accomplishments and have a constant internalized fear that they will be exposed as a “fraud”, despite having all the legitimate and necessary qualifications regarding the given task. Individuals with this syndrome persistently believe that they are a failure, despite evidence that proves otherwise, and suffer from chronic self-doubt. Quite ironically, it contrasts with impostors on the game who have to prove that they are not a liar/cheat, when in fact they are trying to deceive the other crewmates. Instead of proving themselves to others like in the game, they have to prove to themselves that they are not a fraud. 

I remember when I won my first badminton award in school. It was an exhilarating experience, especially for someone who had seldom won anything before. Of course I was thrilled to receive the award, but that only lasted for the first day. Since then, I started doubting my abilities. Deep down I felt as though I was the least deserving of this award on the team. Inevitably, my lack of self confidence and my mind set caused me to have a very negative relationship with a sport, I once thought was my favourite. Ultimately, I ended up leaving the team. (Sad story)

The impostor syndrome is often equated to a person having low-self esteem or low-self confidence, but this is a common misconception. Highly accomplished and successful people, including  Emma Watson, have been victims to this phenomenon. In 2013, Emma Watson said “It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, ‘Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved’,” to Rookie magazine- I guess she didn’t want to be exposed as a “cheat”, some might say she did not want to get “voted out”. Other celebrities such as Robert Pattinson, Ryan Reynolds and even the world famous tennis player Serena Williams have fallen prey to the impostor syndrome. This just goes to show that impostor syndrome extends out to everyone, and unpredictably even out of the mirror. Accepting that you are not alone is the first step to making progress and knowing you deserve what you achieve.

“Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved”

Lots of adults suffer from this phenomenon, but surprisingly, so do children! A few signs of said syndrome could be an extreme lack of self confidence, feelings of inadequacy, constant comparison to other people, anxiety, self doubt, distrust in one’s own intuition and capabilities, negative self-talk, dwelling on the past or even irrational fears of the future- somehow, this accurately seems to describe many teenagers that have unhealthy obsessions with online multiplayer games. It acts as an escape to the inadequacy they feel in reality. 

According to psychologists, the impostor syndrome takes many forms depending on the individual. The first type is perfectionism – this means individuals are never satisfied with the work they do and focus on the flaws in their work instead. It can lead to high amounts of anxiety. Another is known as the ‘superhero’ as individuals may push themselves to work as hard as possible. The ‘expert’ is when individuals are never satisfied with their level of understanding and are always extremely keen to learn more to prove themselves to society and themselves. Finally, the “soloist’ refers to an individual who has a strong preference towards working alone as they feel they are more efficient. Individuals with that thought process tend to consider asking for help as a sign of weakness. 

As Valerie Young, an internationally-known expert on the impostor syndrome, has said, “the only way to stop feeling like an impostor is to stop thinking like an impostor.” People have to understand that they are not the only ones with the impostor mindset and realise that they’re not ‘sus’. To overcome the feeling of alienation and failure, people can attempt to track their success and embark on a journey of self recognition of all the achievements that they have attained through their hard work and struggle to get to where they are now in order to avoid having a high self doubt pertaining to their success. Perhaps if I had fixed my thought process, I would still be playing the sport I once enjoyed. So, an advice I would give to anyone struggling with impostor syndrome would be to stop ‘sabotaging’ themselves and start ‘venting’ to others or someone you trust.